(Newser)
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A woman from Cameroon living in Paris is the first human discovered to be infected with a form of HIV found in gorillas, HealthDay reports. The finding is yet another indication that the disease continues to mutate and to be transmitted by primates. The woman, 62, has not developed symptoms of AIDS, even though she was infected five years ago.

It’s not certain if the woman contracted HIV directly from a gorilla by, for example, eating gorilla meat, or by having sex with someone who had frequent contact with the animals’ blood, such as a gorilla hunter. Scientists believe humans were initially infected with HIV primarily from eating chimpanzee or monkey meat. "The jury is still out as to whether this is bad news relative to strains of HIV that are already circulating," cautioned an AIDS expert.

Ok well its been over 20 years since I saw it, I thought I remembered them all taking turns whacking on the head with a stick, which I thought was to kill it. But now that you said that, it sounds familiar that it was still alive. Sorry for the bad memory.

cognitivefilter

Aug 3, 2009 9:24 AM CDT

yike-a-doo. let's stop poaching gorillas and this won't be an issue.

Jojo

Aug 3, 2009 8:03 AM CDT

Ever time I hear the part about "Scientists believe humans were initially infected with HIV primarily from eating chimpanzee" I think of that Faces Of Death video I saw when I was a teenager where the people sat around a table that was built to eat monkeys. There was a hole in the middle of the table and the monkey... lets just say after he was put out of his misery, they removed the top of the skull for the group of people to have dinner.